Man caught at airport smuggling 12 gold bars up his bum

A man has been detained at Hyderabad’s airport for attempting to smuggle 12 gold bars past customs in the most delicate place.

Showing some serious dedication to his mission, this 36-year-old had stashed the bars up his rectum. His load weighed a whopping 1.2kg, so we can’t imagine he had a particularly comfortable flight. We at least hope there was some fine inflight entertainment to take his mind off things.

This wasn’t the only way the man had tried to sneak gold into the country: authorities also found eight more bars hidden in LED lamps he was carrying when he landed early Sunday morning.

The Air Intelligence Unit told the New Indian Express that in total the 20 gold bars were worth around 5.91 million rupees (about £70,500).

The man had been attempting to smuggle the gold from Singapore to Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. It is cheaper to buy gold in Singapore and there are fewer trade restrictions, hence why so many people attempt to smuggle it from there to India, which is the world’s largest gold consumer.

We have lots of questions about how the gold bars were eventually retrieved, but we think it’s probably best not to ask.